California has signed a bill into law (see what I did with the headline and the photo?) that makes it “unlawful for any person to use a bot to communicate or interact with another person in California online, with the intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purpose of knowingly deceiving the person about the content of the communication in order to incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election. A person using a bot shall not be liable under this section if the person discloses that it is a bot”.
Sounds a lot like my principle that AI must fail the Turing test. The legislation is narrow, however and applies only to bots online. It does seem like lawyers got paid by the word here, as there is a lot to interpret in “intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purpose of knowingly deceiving”. Why not just make it an affirmative requirement to disclose the use of a bot in the purchase or sale of goods, commercial transactions or fakenews electioneering?
Viene la tormenta! 